This may be the most unusual playground theme ever…a giant climbable aardvark, wearing a golden party hat, constructed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Burger’s Zoo in Arnhem. Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman is known for his cheeky installations that look like dropped children’s toys, including a massive rubber ducky that visits waterfronts around the world. His sculptures–giant cuddle bunnies, stairclimbing slugs made of plastic bags, a monkey made of flipflops, a thatch muskrat–have always been playful in forms and materials, but not explicitly playable, until this commission for the party aardvark in his bed of sand.

Surreal, but I see kids enjoying the massive scale much in the same way as they do the Gulliver playground, particularly the cavern-like folds of that enormous aardvark ear!